The Silk Scarf ‘Cats and Dogs’

Description

Coupling impeccable crafting and beautiful storytelling, Ai Weiwei’s scarves are wearable works of art that look as well luxuriously draped over your outfit as hanging in a frame. Ai’s design for this red scarf is based on his papercut Cats and Dogs, reflecting on his work from the 1990s, when he returned to Beijing after a decade-long stay in New York and found his own artistic identity. Published by TASCHEN in 2019 as part of his signed and limited Papercut Portfolio, the medium speaks to Ai’s use of traditional craftsmanship in his art, which is twofold here: as the craft of the Chinese papercut goes back 2000 years, silk weaving was invented even 5000 years ago, remaining a purely Chinese craft for many millennia. This TASCHEN exclusive by Ai Weiwei is made of high-quality Chinese twill silk, a material renowned for its particularly fine texture, woven and screen-printed by hand, and finished with hand-rolled edges.